She did not know much English so I knew she needed to start off on an easy reading level. Having someone with a different first language learn to read English was challenging. I had to explain why vowels had different sounds and the different pronunciation of words. I realized that English was much more difficult than I had thought. Learning the language a little at a time throughout my life had made English easy for me to learn, but seeing someone else try to learn it made me understand how learning a new language, especially English, was hard.
If you think about it learning how to play a sport and learning a new language both teach you things about your body. There have been many times that players make mistakes during a game, and that connects to all of the times that I made mistakes when I couldn’t pronounce words as a kid. It’s okay to make mistakes because you have a body with a brain, and not a computer. Ever since I was a kid I noticed that I wasn’t like all the other kids. My friends often learned school material faster than I did, and I always felt like I was let behind since my English wasn’t good.
When I first started school, I really didn’t know any English. It was hard because none of the kids knew what I was saying, and sometimes the teachers didn’t understand what I was saying. I was put in those ELL classes where they teach you English. The room they would take us to was full of pictures to teach us English, and they would make us sit on a red carpet and teach us how to read and write. When I would go back to regular class, I would have to try harder than the other students.
The reason was that I rarely communicate in English with my family, friends, or teachers because I am usually with my mother. Hence, me and my siblings picked up Hmong more than English since my mother at the time was illiterate and could not encourage me or my siblings to read and practice our literacy skill. Instead my siblings and I were encouraged by our parents on knowing how to read and write in Hmong. My parents enrolled me and my younger siblings to an afterschool program to learn Hmong because they wanted us to be educated and know where our linage came from. Hence, being stuck in between two languages was a concerned for me because both languages were different and did not correlate with each other.
Despite my being able to speak English since a very young age, English classes have not always been a strong point in my life. The progression from just getting started writing, spelling, and reading to being able to compose short stories and news articles have been a somewhat painful experience for me. It was not interesting, but then I found a better way, which leads to me being able to tell everyone else’s stories for them. I never thought that I would be able to write well enough for people to want to read my work. It all started in grade school, a young boy barely able to tie his own shoe, I was now faced with having to write words on paper.
I barely knew any English so in first grade It was harder for me to speak to my classmates. Things were hard in the beginning but after a while they did get better. I can’t complain too much about always moving because I was meeting new people and I do still speak to most of the people I have
When the teacher would ask any of the sp... ... middle of paper ... ...I wasn’t able to teach them what I learn. I only speak English at home now because it became my parents main language. If they hadn’t learn English they couldn’t have the jobs they have right now because English is a common language used to interact and communicate with people from different countries. I learned a new language and wasn’t bothered that the American kids began with an advance education because of their parents and relatives.
I understood them, maybe not completely, but I knew the intent of their messages. All that I had was my Apple II computer at which I just sat and programmed when I came home from school. At home, my parents pressured me to study all of the time, but I was frustrated and wanted to return to Korea. I wanted to go back and talk freely with my friends and play games with them. My parents often told me that they decided to move here because of the educational opportunities, yet I continued to rebel and refused to listen to what they said.
I tried to have conversation outside of school with my classmates. It was to no avail as they were also new to the language and did not show that much of an interest in it. As a result I was subjected to insults such as “You want to be white boy.” I never gave up and did my best to excel in my English. As time went by, my grades in English class finally started showing
When I was around ten years old, my parents decided to move to the United States, but I had very little experience in speaking English. Even though the local Thai Elementary School that I attended provided English class, it was not even nearly enough for what lay ahead. I have struggled making conversation with anyone. As a foreigner living in a new country, it was very difficult for me to communicate and understand what others were saying. Even though I wanted to return to Thailand to the culture and the environment that I was accustomed to, I was persevered to learn the English language so that I could communicate like everyone else.